War is a terrible phenomenon and one can uncover multiple layers of evil when evaluating just how bad a war is. One way to compare wars in history is to look at the loss of life during each war. Using that calculation, the worst wars in history become horrifically obvious.

Top 7 of the Worst Wars in History:

1. The Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) – Between 3.5 and 6 million people were killed in the wars Napoleon Bonaparte waged in the early 19th century. The Napoleonic Wars were some of the worst wars in history partially because of the widespread use of mass conscription, which was applied at an unprecedented scale during this war.

2. The Russian Civil War (1917-1922) – Some five to nine million people died in the Russian Civil War, which took place in the years that followed the collapse of the Russian Empire and the death of the last Russian Czar.

3. World War I (1914-1918) – An estimated 20 million people were killed in the first World War, then also known as the Great War. Erupting in Europe after the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, World War I is one of the worst wars in history partially because it was among the first wars to have been fought using modern warfare tactics. Up until then, no one had ever seen a war of such scale, and the resulting trauma rippled through several generations.

4. A Lushan Rebellion (755-763 AD) – The An Lushan Rebellion happened in the Chinese Tang Dynasty when a Tang general established a rival dynasty in the North. Despite some disagreements about the reliability of the census system during the time, experts estimate between 13 and 36 million casualties.

5. Qing Dynasty Conquest of the Ming (1618-1683) – The Qing Dynasty is known for being the last of the old Chinese dynasties before the beginning of the Republic, but an estimated 25 million people died in the Conquest of the Ming before the Qing Dynasty began.

6. Taiping Rebellion (1850) – During the Taiping Rebellion, a convert to Christianity named Hong Xiquan led a rebellion against the Manchu Qing Dynasty, during which anywhere between 20 to 100 million people (mostly civilians) were killed.

7. World War II (1938-1945) – With a death toll between 40 and 85 million, the Second World War was the deadliest and worst war in history. Experts estimate with such a high death toll, about three percent of the world’s population at 1940 died.

While the wars listed above are some of the worst wars in history, one must be careful not to forget that deadly wars are being fought today all around the globe as well. These may be the worst wars in history, but who’s to say that the worst war of all isn’t one being fought right now?

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 – but the story of European “discovery” and subsequent conquest of the Americas is much more complex than a children’s nursery rhyme can convey. Although America today is seen as the land of the free and the brave, one must remember that the Americas were free and brave long before the clash of the “Old” and “New” worlds. Here are seven facts about the conquest of the Americas:

One of the most famous encounters between the “New” and “Old World” occurred in 1533, when the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, led 168 of his men into the highlands of Peru to seize the Inca Empire. Pizarro captured and then ransomed the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, forcing the Incas to surrender.

Although war and conquest do account for a large number of indigenous peoples’ deaths during the conquest of the Americas, scholars estimate that thousands more died from exposure to diseases brought over by Europeans for which the indigenous population had not had the chance to develop antibodies or immunity. Such diseases included smallpox, influenza and malaria.

Scientists and experts are at odds with each other over the question of whether or not horses are an indigenous American species. Common knowledge holds that horses were not present in North America until the mid-1500s when Christopher Columbus and the numerous Spanish voyages of conquest introduced them to the continent. But more recent research places ancient horses in North America as recent at 7600 BCE. Whatever the correct answer, one cannot deny that having horses gave the Europeans significant advantage.

People often credit Christopher Columbus with “discovering” America, but more recent scholarship says otherwise. In actuality, a band of Viking explorers led by Leif Eriksson reached what is now Newfoundland as early as 500 years before Columbus ever set foot in America.

Like Pizarro, Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez reached present-day Mexico in 1519 and encountered the indigenous Aztec people. The Aztec emperor, Montezuma, welcomed Cortez and his men into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Cortez, however, captured Montezuma and forced the Aztecs to surrender to him, further solidifying the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

It goes without saying that wherever the European conquerors landed, there was a devastating blow to the indigenous population there. When Columbus met the Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic), the indigenous population fell from 600,000 to 60,000 in only twenty years. In Mexico, the indigenous population fell from 25 million to one million in just a hundred years.

The conquest of the Americas didn’t stop with the Spanish conquest, however. After settling in North America, the Europeans who stayed there eventually broke off with Europe and formed the United States and pushed ever westward following the ideals of “Manifest Destiny.” Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado estimates that the indigenous population of North America fell from 12 million in 1500 to 237,000 in 1900. Although the “American Indian Wars” definitely contributed to this significant drop, experts agree that the biggest blow to the population was in the form of economic and social upheaval.

The meeting of two worlds came with both good and bad consequences. It is important to remember the consequences of the conquest of the Americas in order to move forward positively as a nation. With hope, future discoveries and explorations will lead to improved, rather than strained, relations.

https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.jpg00Borgen Projecthttps://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.jpgBorgen Project2017-02-26 01:30:582017-02-24 13:39:48Seven Facts About the Conquest of the Americas

While not known as a major player on the global political stage, once upon a time, Mongolia was the largest contiguous land empire in the world. The Mongols originated their empire in the steppes of central Asia when Genghis Khan unified the nomadic clans of Mongolia and led a years-long campaign of conquest in the 13th century. At its prime, the borders of Genghis’ empire stretched from Central Europe and Siberia to the eastern Chinese coast and Arabia. Here are eight facts about the Mongols, their culture and their conquests:

Kublai Khan ordered two campaigns to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281. The campaigns were ultimately unsuccessful, however, as the Mongol fleet met with a powerful typhoon during both campaigns, which wiped out between 60 and 90 percent of their forces. This massive upset became an important event in Japanese history and suggested that despite the strength of the empire, Mongol conquest had its limits. The intervention of nature during these battles became known as kamikaze, or “divine wind”, a concept that the Japanese turned to once again in WWII.

Scholar and writer of The Secret History of Mongol Queens, Jack Weatherford says that as Genghis Khan built his empire, he solidified Mongol Empire control over conquered territories by securing strategic marriages for his daughters. For example, his daughter Alaqai married into the Onggud tribe while Al-Atun married a prince of the Uighurs. Upon marriage, Genghis made sure his daughters became their husbands’ principal wives.

Medieval Mongol Empire warfare relied mostly on mounted archers. Mongolian cavalry favored the Mongol recurve bow when riding into battle. This type of bow has limbs that curve away from the archer, allowing the bow to lend more potential energy and speed to the arrow. Being smaller than other bows, the Mongol recurve bow was also a less-cumbersome weapon for a soldier on horseback. Scholar Jeanine Davis-Kimball also points out that horseback riding and archery were martial arts that could be easily learned by both men and women, making Mongol society a bit more egalitarian.

The Battle of Xiangyang in 1273 was a key victory for Kublai Khan’s Yuan Mongols, one that gave the Mongols, even more access to the Southern Song heartland. The Song eventually surrendered to Kublai Khan’s Mongol forces in 1276, and the incorporation of the Chinese into the empire resulted in some sinicization of Mongol culture, meaning that the Mongols adopted some Chinese customs and values such as the reinstation of the Civil Service Examination.

After Kublai Khan conquered the Song Dynasty and declared the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, he moved the capital of his empire from the Karakorum in Central Asia to Khanbaliq, the site of present-day Beijing.

In 1231, Genghis’ son Ogodei ordered a campaign of conquest on the Korean Peninsula, which was then known as the Kingdom of Goryeo. The campaigns continued until 1270 when the king of Goryeo signed a peace treaty with the Mongols and Korea became a Mongol vassal state.

Genghis’ grandson, Hulagu became the Great Khan in the kurultai of 1256. As Great Khan, Hulagu ordered a series of campaigns in the Middle East. Under his rule, the Mongols captured Baghdad in 1258, and the Abbassid Caliphate became a part of the growing Mongol Empire.

The Mongols, along with other nomadic central Asian cultures of the time, practiced sky burials or the practice of leaving the bodies of their dead out in the open to be exposed to the elements and eaten by carrion birds. The ritual is a part of a branch of Buddhism practiced by the Mongols known as Vajrayana. According to Vajrayana Buddhism, death is simply a transmigration of the spirit, therefore corpses are merely empty vessels that ought to be disposed of in a generous way, such as decomposition or as food for birds. The custom is still practiced today in parts of Mongolia and Tibet.

These are just a handful of fascinating facts about the Mongol Empire, but the story of the Mongol people didn’t end with the fall of the empire. Today, Mongolia is a fast-growing economic frontier full of sprawling steppes and desert, rich with minerals. They’ve since abandoned their military campaigns of conquest and transitioned to democracy and a market economy. Though Mongolia is not known as the most outspoken state today, one wonders when and how Genghis’ people will next stun the world.